Transition metal phosphides belong to an important and exciting class of materials with a wide range of emerging applications. One of the applications that have attracted a lot of attention recently is in the petroleum industry. The hydroprocessing of crude oil containing S and N is of paramount importance to the gas and oil industry. This will play an ever increasing importance in the future due to declining quality of oil produced as well as stricter laws mandating reduced level in gasoline and diesel. In view of keeping up with the imposed restrictions it is imperative that improved catalysts for accomplishing these goals be investigated. S—Mo—Ni/Al2O3 has been used in hydrodenitrogenation and hydrodesulfurization of petroleum feedstocks. Researchers have shown that transition metal phosphides are very active catalysts in hydroprocessing.1,2 
Among these catalysts, Nickel phosphide, Ni2P, on silica support has been shown to exhibit excellent performance characteristics in both hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) as well as hydrodesulfurization (HDS) with activities greater than commercially available mixed transition metal Ni—Mo—S/Al2O3 catalyst.2 
The discovery of Ni2P as an outstanding catalyst for both HDN and HDS has attracted interest in the synthesis of nickel phosphides.3 A comparison of the different synthetic procedures for transition metal phosphide synthesis, indicates that most are tedious that use highly reactive and expensive precursors, use electrolytic reduction or H2 gas for the transformation. Prior techniques have included the combination of the elements under extreme temperature and pressure, reaction of metal chloride with phosphine gas, decomposition of complex organometallics, electrolysis and reduction of phosphate with gaseous hydrogen.1 
A different method for controlled synthesis of Ni2P nanocrystals has been reported recently by Liu et al.4 The procedure involves reacting yellow phosphorous and Ni2SO4 in ethylene glycol: water solvent in an autoclave at 180° C. for 12 hours. The black solid product is filtered and washed with absolute ethanol, benzene and water. The XRD of the product showed that it was Ni2P and the morphology was dentritic as determined by SEM. The mechanism of the formation of the product was thought to involve the formation of PH3 upon the reaction of P with water and with H3PO4. Once generated nickel ions were theorized to combine with PH3 to form Ni2P.
Xie et. al5 have reported the synthesis of irregular Nickel phosphide nanocrystals containing Ni, Ni3P, Ni5P2 and Ni12P5 by a milder route using NiCl2 and sodium hypophosphite as reactants at 190° C. The product after reflux was washed with ammonia and ethanol. Copper phosphide hollow spheres have been synthesized in ethylene glycol by a solvothermal process using copper hydroxide and elemental phosphorus as starting material using an autoclave at 200° C. for 15 hours.6 
Nevertheless, it is believed that the existing techniques are neither economically attractive nor quick or safe, for large scale commercial manufacture in an industrial setting.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.